Double Play
by bamboo72498
Summary: The next book in my 'Five Little Monkeys' series. Set the summer after the quintuplets turn two.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Alright, here is another story to help you pass the time during boring classes...i mean to read as a treat after studying hard for thirty minutes. I hope you guys like this one.**

**Disclaimer****: They are not mine! I swear!**

**Enjoy!**

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When Kate Beckett got pregnant three years ago she never would have imagined she would be the mom to five, now, two year-olds. She never could have dreamed of the love she felt for those five bean shaped things growing inside her stomach or the tiny fingers and toes of her born to early quints as they lived in the NICU for the first two months of their lives. Or the love and excitement she felt for each of her kids at they stood on their two chubby, wobbly legs and took their first steps; even Finn who four months ago, just a week after her second birthday, with the help of a walker two sizes too big for her, took her first steps. Kate could almost cry at the memory of Finn walking; something the doctors had said she might never do.

Even now as she sits in the hard chair of her kids pediatrician's office, cuddling a sick and whiny Austin close to her body, she wouldn't trade it in for anything.

It's too quiet in the waiting room, the only sounds are the desk clerks typing away on their computers and the gurgling fish tank tucked into a far corner of the room. Usually when they come into the office, which isn't too often, knock on wood, the fishies are a big hit with her kids, but today, her youngest son is too sick to even notice their there.

Austin is in her lap, face mashed into her shoulder, turning this way and that, trying to find a comfortable spot on mom to fall asleep.

"Mommy I yucky," Austin whines again. It's been his mantra since she picked him up at daycare. The teacher had sent him home with what she called a 'low grade' fever and an ear ache, which because of the fever were grounds to be sent home from school until the sickness passes.

"I know you don't feel good, buddy, but the doctor is going to see you soon and help make you better," she says to him, running a hand down his back which actually calms him down and helps to relax the tense muscles in his back.

A minute later, a nurse come through the door and calls Austin's name to be taken back to a room.

Kate doesn't even bother setting him down and having him walk, she carries him back and follows the nurse to where she has to check Austin's vitals.

"Alright buddy, you need to get down for a minute," Kate says to her sickly son, loosening the arm that's around his back.

"No, mommy!" he whines, and clings tighter to her side.

"Real quick Austin, then you can go back to mommy," the nurse says, trying to coax him out of his mom's arms and onto the scale; she can do the tempo check with him when he's back with mommy.

"Come on," Kate slides him out of her arms, ignoring his protests and sets him on the scale, shoes and all.

Ten seconds later the scale beeps, it's over, and Kate scoops her son back up to which he burrows into her jacket.

The nurse marks the weight in Austin's chart; it's gone up since they saw him six months ago, and sets a new ear piece on the thermometer. She sticks it in his ear, which Austin doesn't like at all.

"101.2 no wonder you don't feel good buddy!" The nurse says to him, marking the reading in his chart and leading them back to their exam room. It's the room with all the dinosaurs on the walls, the Castle boy's favorite thing right now. But Austin is too sick to care much except to lift his head and flash a dimpled smile, the first Kate has seen out of him since she picked him up from school forty five minutes ago.

"Alright, let's see here," the nurse, Tara, says as she opens her computer, pulls up Austin's chart and starts to make notes. "When was the first time you noticed his ear hurting? Or, when did he tell you?"

"This morning he got up and told me his ear hurt him, but I didn't think anything of it. I told myself and his teacher at school to keep an eye on it and hope it wasn't anything bad," Kate says, a hand again rubbing Austin's back.

"Ok, have there been any other symptoms? Cough? Runny nose?"

"No, nothing before his ear"

"Has he been playing in water much this summer?"

"Mmhmm, every Tuesday and Thursday at his school this summer they had 'water play days' and we've been to the beach and the pool a lot this summer as a family. Their dad is trying to get them comfortable in the water for when they start swim classes soon."

"Ok, well I'm going to check his blood pressure real quick and the doctor will be in soon," Tara says closing her laptop. She crosses the room, and pulls down the blood pressure cuff. She has to use the smallest one available because Austin's arm is smaller than a normal two year olds. She does the test, and leaves the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

"Wanna play 'Wheel's on the Bus?" she asks Austin about his favorite game to play on her and Castle's phones.

When he doesn't reply, Kate looks down at her boy. He looks absolutely miserable: his eyes have glassed over, he's tanging his fingers in the hairs at the nape of her neck; it's like he's in a far off, fever induced dream world.

"Well if you're not going to play, I'll just listen to music, ok?"

Again silence, but she doesn't mind, she knows the reason behind this silence, it's a different kind of silence from the one where they are all at home and the kids are in a different room than her, alone, generally in that situation, silence means they have gotten into some kind of trouble.

She turns on her iPod and shuffles through her music trying to find something not too loud that will hurt Austin's head. She finally settles on the soundtrack from the first Harry Potter movie, it's music that everyone can agree on: it's nerdy for Castle, it's different for her and the kids like listening to it, even though they don't know the story behind the songs, yet. Castle is planning to teach them all about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and all kinds of nerdy things as they get older.

A knock comes at the door, and is opened by the kind, smiling Dr. Mathew Davis. He's one of the four doctors in the practice and out of all of them, Kate thinks her kids like him best.

"Hello Kate," he says, smiling curtly at her. "Hi Austin; I heard you weren't feeling too well today, huh?" he asks the toddler, as he runs a hand through his hair.

Austin nods against her shoulder and whimpers for dramatic effect; yup, he is definitely his father's son.

The good doctor talks with Kate for a while, asking basically the same questions the nurse did, before getting up off his stool and getting his light set up with a new cap. He looks in Austin's mouth, nose and finally his ears, which Austin doesn't like one bit and squirms the entire time. After a minute of studying her son's ears Dr. Davis gives Kate his diagnosis.

"Looks like a full blown double ear infection," he says, cleaning up the exam table.

"You're kidding!" Kate isn't surprised, she guessed Austin might have an ear infection after he kept pulling on his ears and pointing to a different one each time Kate asked him to point to what hurt.

"Nope, it's bright red and inflamed in there. I'll write you a prescription for some anti-biodics, he should be feeling better in a few days." He types something into his computer and like that the prescription is sent to the pharmacy to be filled. "You can probably pick it up on your way home, and give him some Tylenol for his fever. Make sure he's drinking plenty of fluids and watch him. If he doesn't get better by Monday, come back and we'll see what's going on, alright?"

"Alright, Thank you again, for seeing us on short notice," Kate says, standing with Austin in her arms, and the check out forms in her only free hand.

"Don't worry about it, things like this happen sometimes," Dr. Davis jokes as he walks them out of the exam room and down the hall to check out.

Kate laughs, "Thanks again," she says then watches the doctor walk away to his office or to another patient, she guesses.

They sign out with the nice lady at the desk, who gives Austin a Jake the Pirate sticker, which he takes and holds it against his chest so not to lose it.

After a trip down the elevator and a walk through the parking lot, Kate finally gets Austin clipped into his car seat and herself into the car and they head off towards the store to pick up Austin's prescription and some 'sick' foods before heading home for the night.

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Rick Castle hates days like this. He dropped the kids off at school and then had been in meetings all day; very long, very boring meetings, and was just getting around to writing. His publisher had sent him home with six pages of notes on edits for the newest Nikki Heat book, and they were taking longer than he thought they would.

His rhythm is broken when he hears the garage door open and a few minutes later he can hear Kate's shoes clicking on the tile floor of the mud room. He save his document and leaves his office, his computer open on his desk, and meets Kate and Austin in the kitchen where she drops off two plastic shopping bags and sets Austin on the counter.

"Hey," she says, kissing him over her son's shoulder.

"Hey, how did it go?" he asks and starts to unpack the groceries.

"The wait was long and it took forever to see the doctor, but it was good," she says, pulling her hair back, off her neck and out of her face.

He pulls out bottle after bottle of apple juice and Gatorade, leaving some out on the counter and putting others in the fridge to get cold for later.

"Well that sucks, I'm sorry." She smiles.

She got some more of those frozen chicken nuggets the kids like so much; good, good.

"Oh and the doctor said he has a full blown double ear infection. We have some medicine to give him and he said to make sure he's drinking and to keep an eye on him," she tells Castle, opening the bag from the pharmacy with Austin's prescription in it and setting the medicine on the counter, out of reach of little fingers.

"Poor Austin," Castle says running his hand through Austin's long, dirty blonde hair and down his temple and cheek. He still feels really hot.

"Listen, I'm going to get me and him changed, there are a few more bags in the car, can you get them?" Kate asks lifting Austin from his temporary perch on the counter and back into her arms. Castle nods and turns for the garage.

Soon all of the groceries are put away, and Castle is pouring some Gatorade into a sippy cup for Austin to drink when he hears Kate come back down stairs. He follows the sound on her slippered feet on the hardwood floors into the living room. She's changed out of her work clothes and into mesh shorts and a tank top; the straps on her bra peeking out under the razor-back tank.

She makes a nest out of blankets and pillows for her and Austin, who is back in the Jake the Pirate pajamas he wore last night, and curls up on the couch, one leg under the other, covering the both of them with a blanket even though it is near eighty degrees outside. The TV is on an episode of Jake the Pirate that his kids have probably seen a hundred times.

"Here buddy, drink some of this, it will make you fell lots better," Castle says handing his son the cup of juice. Austin takes it, and sips a little, but with his fever still up; he doesn't feel like doing much of anything.

"Hey, can you go grab the children's Tylenol? I forgot to grab it before I sat down," Kate asks, wincing as her son's elbow jabs into her solar plexus as he tries to get comfortable.

"Yea, I'll be right back," he turns back for the kitchen and the medicine in the corner cabinet. He has to reach way in the back to the red dyed liquid as they haven't used it since winter when they had colds going around the family. Everyone had gotten it and the worst part was when they were all sick as dogs and in bed. No one was well enough to do much besides sleep and whine at how sick they were.

He comes back and Austin is asleep on Kate's lap. He sighs loudly and Kate stifles a laugh with the back of her hand.

"Sorry," she whispers, trying her hardest not to wake up Austin, who needs sleep the most right now, at least until his fever breaks. "Just leave it there; I'll give him some when he wakes up."

He nods and sits down in the empty spot Kate left. He takes her hand, lacing their fingers together.

"So Esposito was texting me all day. Said something about Ryan being paranoid and I should be glad I'm not there," Castle says, watching as the animated pirates on the screen count all the gold coins they collected on their adventure and add them to their treasure chest.

Kate laughs again, and continues to run her hand through Austin's hair. Its gotten long; they are all due for a haircut soon.

"He _was_ being paranoid! He kept checking his phone and mentioned calling to check on Jenny all day. Finally I just gave in and told him to take a break and call her. She was fine. I don't get what he was all riled up about; she's pregnant; not going to explode at the slightest touch."

He chuckles and Kate turns to look at him, pinching his shoulder.

"Ow! Don't hurt me! You know for a fact he was the exact same way when Grace was born and I was like that when you were pregnant. It's a father thing; we have to take care of our wives and young."

She shakes her head. She knows that. Castle was in her face every second while she was pregnant, especially when she was put on bed rest. Eventually she had had enough and practically yelled at him to back off before she hurt him. Ryan is the exact same way, only Kate thinks it's worse now that Jenny is pregnant with their second child. She doesn't know how to describe it, but Ryan was definitely not this bad before Grace was born.

Castle watches as the end credits on the show start to roll and he checks the clock on his phone. He gasps and sits up, letting go of Kate's hand.

"I have to go pick up the kids," he stands and moves back into his office and comes back a minute later with his shoes on and is shoving his wallet into his pocket.

"Ok, go. They'll be happy you're picking them up today," Kate says. It's usually her picking up the kids who have transitioned from the school day schedule into the after school and night care program by the time she usually gets there.

"Alright, I'll be back soon. You sure you're going to be alright?"

"We'll be fine. This one will probably be asleep for a while and I'm more than happy to be watching," she hits info on the TV remote, "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue," she looks at him and they both laugh, knowing deep down inside Kate loves all those Disney movies their kids favorite channel shows around this time of the day, especially when it's a Tinker Bell movie; it's Kate's favorite character.

"Alright, I'll be back," he walks out of the room and Kate hears the garage door open then close behind her husband. She settles back into the couch and shifts Austin on her lap to not have his bony elbow poking into her spleen.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who followed, Favorited and Reviewed last chapter, it made me smile. I have more at the end.**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclamor: Not mine, just borrow them now and again.**

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The windows are thrown wide open, the sun warming his skin, and Led Zeppelin's 'Communication Breakdown' blasting through the van's speakers on the local Classic Rock radio station. Despite one of his five kids coming home sick, this has been a pretty good day.

He takes the last right turn into the parking lot his kids' daycare-slash-pre-school and pulls into a spot next to a navy blue pick-up truck. He undoes his seat belt, but stays in the car; just to finish the song.

He and Kate have been sending their kids to Vista Ridge since last August. They wanted all five quints to be ready to start school, meaning Finn; who by then was sitting on her own and was crawling. The kids are enrolled in the five day a week schedule but only go two to three days a week. With Castle home most days, it defeats the purpose of them going, but when he has meetings or needs a day to work or run errands by himself or cleanup the house without little hands taking out every toy just because him having to clean it up again makes them laugh, they go. This summer they have been going closer the three days as next year they are going to be in the older class and will start participating in actual school type activities will have to go three days a week, much to Castle's dismay.

Kate had very little qualms about it after their initial tour a week before the quints first birthday. She had reservations about Finn not being ready; especially at that time she was barely sitting up on her own, let alone crawling. Kate knew that kids their age had been in daycare since they were younger than their kids were. She said it would be good for them to be with other kids their age and learn to share and be social and not spend all day every day with their siblings. They had spent a few months talking it over and mulling over petty and selfish problems before finally deciding that having their kids go to daycare had more pro's than con's.

The song ends and he turns off the car and walks up to the school, pausing in front of the doors and ringing the bell, Helen, the secretary, will buzz him inside. A minute later he hears the lock click and he walks into the air conditioned school, a nice relief from the warm June air.

"Hey, Mr. Castle," Helen says looking up from her computer and smiling at her.

"Hello," he replies, signing into the computer at the desk and signing out his four remaining kids.

"So, is Austin alright? When your wife picked him up he looked pretty bad," Helen asks, back to her computer.

"Yea, he'll be fine. It turned out to be a double ear infection. We're going to keep him home tomorrow and hopefully by Friday he should be feeling good enough to come back."

"Ok, well tell him to feel better and that we'll miss him when he's gone."

"I will," Castle says, moving out of the cheerful lobby to the main hallway.

"Um, I think their class is in the big room having gym class," Helen calls to him hoping to lessen his hunt for his kids' class.

"Thanks," Castle calls over his shoulder and continues down the hallway, passing the turn to get to the quints classroom.

Every week during Vista Ridge's summer program has theme. One week it could be 'Under the sea' where the kids learn about the ocean and the animals that live there and the next it could be 'Chef's Week' where they meet actual chefs and make food all week. Each week is filled with crafts and projects and activities that go along with the theme of that week. This particular week for example is 'Olympic Week' where each class participates in different games and competes for points and the class at the end of the week with the most points gets an ice cream party. The kids have been learning about, and trying, different sports that are in the Olympic Games.

Castle finds an older class, not his kids', playing with their class and a few teachers in the Big Room.

The Big Room is where the kids can run around and play when the weather isn't very good or they have an activity that is best done inside rather than outside on the playground. There is a climbing structure with a slide that ends in a ball pit, a swing hanging from a rope clipped into the ceiling, one of those plastic painted play houses, some baby dolls and strollers, toys like scooters and bikes and riding things are tucked out of the way and mats and other things for them to roll around and jump on.

He watches through the window for a while, hoping no one notices him, they will be distracted and not want to get back on track.

It looks like they are running through an obstacle course the teachers have set up. They start at the top of a slanted mat and have to do a forward roll of it, then jump through some hoola hoops lying on the floor, then crawl under and jump over some poles stretched between two chairs or low steps, then walk across a balance beam, climb up and through the play structure, go down the slide and end in the ball pit.

After two of the kids go through the course, Castle walks away, back down the hallway and turning right at the cross roads and down another art work covered hall. He stops at the first door on his right, and looks through the window on the door.

The kids are spread all over the classroom playing with toys in groups of two or three. The two teachers in the room are floating between the groups making sure everyone is playing nicely, helping the kids out when they need it like putting on dress up clothes, and breaking up any fights that might arise

Castle slips quietly into the room and starts collecting his kids' backpacks and he checks the bucket on the shelf in their cubbies for any art work the kids have collected over the week and for any notes from their teacher.

He gets by unseen until one of the teachers, Ms. Jodi, claps her hands and tells her class that it is time to clean up. It's only then that Miyana is the first to see him as she helps put away the baby dolls she and another girl were playing with.

"Daddy!" she shrieks while running over to him. She crashes into his shins and he has to take a step back to counteract the impact.

"Hey Mia girl," he says, kneeling down to give his daughter a proper hug. "Go help clean up," he tells her, pushing her off him and back to her class. The other three soon follow and he gladly gives them all hugs, but tells them to go help their friends clean up the toys before they can leave.

Once all of the toys have been cleaned up and everyone is sitting on the carpet in front of the calendar, the teacher lets the four Castle kids leave with their father. He signs them out on the clip board the other teacher, Ms. Karen, holds out to him. All four kids put on their backpacks, and he leads them out of the classroom and down the hall. Finn brings up the rear in her red walker, the tips of her AFO braces sticking up over her socks that have fallen down over the course of the day. The braces keep her feet from turning in towards each other and help her to walk as proper as possible.

"Daddy, where Tin-Tin?" Liam asks about his twin brother, who he knows left school early, something that almost_ never_ happens to any of his siblings.

"Austin is at home with mommy," Castle replies to his son, talking to his dinosaur backpack instead of the boy's face. "He's not feeling well, so when we get home we all need to be very quiet because Austin might be sleeping, okay?" He's talking to all his kids, not just Liam, now.

"Okay," they reply as they turn into the lobby; the three girls run to get hugs from both of the desk clerks before they leave. Castle leads the kids outside with a fleeting 'good-bye' to the women at the desk as he walks through the door.

He gets them all into their car seats, Danielle going on the whole time about when they did at school that day, and soon they head for home: the windows still thrown wide open, sun warming up the car and music blasting through the speakers.

[] []

She hears them before she sees them; all talking at once about school and the things they did. She hears the wheels on Finn's walker hit the tile floor and then hears them scrape over the threshold onto the wood floors of the rest of the main floor.

"Hi mommy," Finn says coming into the living room, her panda backpack stowed safely in the cubby holes set up in the mudroom.

"Hi Nemo girl," Kate says sitting up and accepting a hug from her youngest daughter. Austin, who is curled into a ball and pressed flush against his mom, is awake but not happy about it. He is at that stage of sickness where he doesn't know what to do; he's been up and down since his dad left to pick up his siblings.

"Tin-Tin sick?" Finn asks.

"Yes. He's not feeling very well. His ears hurt," Kate explains, scooping Austin back into her arms and holding him close, rocking a little bit.

"Him ears?" Finn replies. Kate nods. "Tin-Tin," Finn says top her brother, tapping his arm with her tiny hand.

"Thank you Nemo, that's so sweet, trying to make brother feel better." The tiny girl smiles and moves over to the basket of toys in the corner.

"Mommy!" Liam shrieks, running in from the mudroom and crashing into the empty spot on the couch.

"Liam!" Kate shouts back, tickling her son's sides, making him laugh. "Did you have a good day at school?" she asks, once Liam's giggles calm down.

"Yea; we painted with whip cream," he says, hoisting himself onto the couch.

"You painted with whipped cream?" Kate asked, not understanding what her son was saying.

"Yea," Liam says, not really involved in the conversation anymore, he's sucked into a recorded episode of Jake the Pirate. Kate doesn't continue, lets her son take five.

The final two girls come in next; Miyana doesn't even notice her mom, just moves over to the toys with her sister.

"Hi Miyana," Kate encourages. Finally her daughter notices and leaves her game with a Little People Disney Princess Castle long enough to hug her mom.

"Hi mommy," Danielle says, coming around the couch and getting a hug and kiss from Kate. She's still wearing her butterfly back pack.

"Danielle James, bring your backpack here please," Castle calls. Dani's eyes widen and she looks embarrassed.

"Go give it to daddy," Kate prompts and the girl scampers off, her backpack slapping against her spine.

A minute later the two return, sans backpack, and Castle lifts Liam off his spot, sits down, and puts the boy onto his lap. Danielle curls up in the armchair, watching the TV show.

"How's he doing?" Castle asks, reaching over and rubbing a hand over Austin's leg.

"He still has a fever," Kate says, resting her chin on the crown of his head. "But I got him to take some Tylenol and drink a bit of juice, so that's good," she gives Castle a half smile. They were in for a long couple of days if Austin's fever didn't break soon.

"Yes it is good," Castle says leaning over and grabbing the sippy cup off the coffee table and handing it to Austin. "Here, buddy, you want some more juice?" he asks.

Austin takes the cup and drinks a little. His eyes are still glassed over, still in a fever induced dream world. But he's more comfortable now, Rick can tell. He's not moving around trying to get away from the body aches that come from a fever; he's relaxed.

The episode ends and the TV returns to their recording playlist. Castle takes the remote and scrolls through the list to find something they can all watch that is not Jake the Pirate. Finally he finds a movie he's content with and plays it.

"Stitch!" Miyana shrieks, looking up from her and Finn's game to the movie playing. It had recently become Mia's favorite movie and she requests to watch it whenever she can. She even got Stitch stuffed animal for her birthday, a gift from her Papa Jim, that almost beats out her floppy, purple hippo that her older sister gave her when she was a baby and still living in the hospital; but only just.

Mia abandons the game and leans back against the arm chair, already wrapped up in the movie.

Castle makes it until the part where Nani and Lilo take Stitch surfing for the first time when he checks the time on his cell phone.

Quarter until six.

"I'm going to go start dinner," he tells Kate as he stands, sliding Liam off his lap and onto the couch cushion. Kate doesn't reply, she just as into the movie as their kids.

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**A/N: So remember at the end of 'Blowing out a Wish' when they were talking about moving? Well if you haven't figured it out yet, they moved. I'm working something that should filling the blanks. Should be up soon.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Kate. Kate!" Castle says getting his wife's attention. She turns and makes eye contact with him. "Dinner's almost ready, so do you want to," he shakes his head towards the kids silently asking Kate to get them ready to eat.

She nods and he goes back to finishing up dinner. She grabs the remote and stops the movie which elicits grumbles from her kids.

"Don't worry, you guys can finish it after dinner," she tells them, lifting Austin off her lap and standing. The sick little boy curls into a ball and tucks his favorite fluffy, dark blue blanket under his chin, cuddling with it like it's a stuffed animal. "Go wash your hands," she tells the other four who scamper off to be first at the bathroom sink. "No fighting!" Kate calls to them when she hears the step stool banging against the bottom of the vanity.

Kate walks into the kitchen to see what her chef has prepared for dinner. He's still moving around, making sure everything is ready. There is a jug of apple juice on the counter and Kate makes use of herself and moves over to it, pulling the kids cups from out of the cabinet over her head.

"So, what did you make?" she asks, pouring the juice into the cups.

"Sloppy-Joe's," He replies, his head stuck in the fridge as he looks for something.

"That it?" she asks tightening the lids of the four sippy cups.

"And corn, macaroni and a Caesar salad," he says, pulling out a bowl full of the green salad out of the fridge.

Kate nods, moving over to the table where her kids, with freshly washed hands, have started climbing into their booster seats.

"Mommy, help me?" Finn asks, standing next to her chair.

"Please?" Kate requests, moving over to the girl.

"Please," Finn answers. Kate picks her up and sets her in her seat, and buckles her in, just in case she should fall. Kate turns back to the counter and grabs the four cups.

"I want the pink one!" Miyana and Finn shout at the same time. Kate shakes her head. It's the same thing every night: a fight over the only pink sippy cup they have. They really should think about getting another one.

"Finn, you had the pink one at breakfast, it's Mia's turn," Kate says softly trying to reason with her daughter.

"No!" Finn cries.

"Nemo, you can either pick another color or go into time out; it's your choice," Kate says, her patience fading fast. Finn pouts and Kate gives her a minute to decide.

"The green one," Finn says still pouting and looking down. She still wants that pink cup, but doesn't want to be put in time out more.

"Good choice," Kate says handing her the preferred color cup and giving the other two kids the remaining cups. Once they are sitting semi-quietly with their cups and Castle is passing out plates of food to them, Kate moves back over to Austin on the couch.

"Buddy, we're eating dinner, do you want to eat what daddy made or do you want me to make you some soup?" she asks him, banding down to his level.

He grumbles something that Kate can't understand.

"Austin I know you don't feel well, but you have to use words, I can't understand you when you talk like that."

"Soup," Austin says plainly.

"Ok, well then I'm going to eat, and then I'll make you food, ok?" Kate asks, ruffling his hair. He moves away, grumbling. She nods and moves back to the table where a plate is waiting for her.

"He's still not feeling well, huh?" Castle asks as Kate sits down across from him.

"Yea, he doesn't know what to do. I'll try and get him to bed early if he doesn't eat," she says taking a bite.

Castle nods. "Mmm," he hums over a bite. He swallows before continuing. "Your dad called me today. He said he'd just meet us here before the game and then we can drive together. 'No sense taking two cars when we're going to the same place,' as he put it."

Kate gasps and looking over her shoulder at the top of Austin's head over the couch.

"Castle, the game," she sighs. "He can't go tomorrow if he's still like this; he'll never make it through the game."

"I know," he says, reaching a hand across the table.

"Well now I feel bad," Kate says looking at her other four kids, who are eating happily and babbling about something that happened at school that day.

"Why do you feel bad? It's not your fault he got sick."

"I know but he was _so_ looking forward to going to that game, I hate that he might miss it."

"If he misses it, he misses it; there will be other games. How about we wait and see how he feels in the morning, then decide, okay?" Kate nods, eating more of her dinner.

Jim had gotten the whole family tickets to tomorrow's Yankee's game. It was a rare afternoon game during the week, but Kate guessed it was because they were leaving on a long road trip the next day, it was the perfect time to have one last home game. This wouldn't be the kids' first game; they had been to a handful of others with their parents and grandfather. They loved it: the game the crowd, the atmosphere; all of it.

Kate remembers going to games with her parents when she was younger: sitting up in the 'nose bleed section,' eating a hot dog the size of her face, praying a loose ball would come her way, but never did. But after her mom died, and her dad started drinking, she stopped going to games. She would watch them on TV, sure, but was never in attendance.

However, when her dad was getting help and going to counseling, the therapist told them to start doing things they used to before Johanna died, that it might help. So slowly the two started going to games: The first few times were the hardest, not having Johanna there, but they got better every time and now they can go and not have it hurt.

They realized that doing something they used to love doing as a family wasn't going to tarnish Jo's memory, it helped solidify it. Kate always thought her mom would love knowing her daughter and husband still went to game; still did things that made them happy.

"Mommy, I done," Danielle says, pushing her plate away. Kate looks up and has to suppress a sigh.

"Danielle, three more bites, please?" she asks and moves the plate back to the girl. Danielle whines, tears coming to her eyes.

"No mommy," she whines. It's been such as fight lately to get Danielle to eat more than a few bites of food at meals. She'll try everything on her plate, that's not the problem; she loves food. The problem is that she never cleans her plate, even when her portions are the same size as her siblings.

Kate scoops up a forkful of corn and holds it up to Dani. "One more bite of corn, then you can be done." It's not a bribe, more of a reasoning tactic. Kate feels a bit better that Danielle got another bite of vegetable in her body.

Dani leans over, mouth open, and bites down on the fork. Kate makes sure the bite is eaten and not spat out before getting Danielle out of her seat and onto the floor.

Kate gets up and takes her and Danielle's plates to the sink before starting on warming up some soup for Austin.

One by one the rest of the family finishes their food and bring their plates over to the sink. Even the two year olds, who have to do it at school, so why not at home?

"Stitch!" Miyana shouts, running into the living room, waiting for someone to start the movie.

"Castle, will you start that movie before she starts a riot or something?" Kate asks from the stove where she's stirring a pot.

"I got it!" He calls and a minute later Kate can hear the movie playing.

Since Castle cooked, it's her job to clean up the dishes. She rinses the plates off before putting them into the dishwasher and putting the pans on top of them. She adds detergent and turns it on to run overnight.

By that time Austin's dinner is ready and she walks back into the living room. She leans over the couch and runs a hand through Austin's hair.

"Tin-Tin, your food is ready," she says to him. He turns to face her and lifts his open arms to her, a silent request to be carried to the table. She smiles and picks him up over the couch with a grunt. "You are getting to big to do this buddy," she says kissing his still warm temple.

Austin sits at the table quietly, eating his food and listening to the movie his family is watching. Slowly he eats up some of the bowl of soup his mom made him before pushing it away.

"All done?" Kate asks. He nods and reaches up to be held again. She stands, takes him out of his chair and carries him back to the couch, taking a spot next to Castle.

She settles back against the cushions, Austin on her lap, his head on her shoulder. She rubs a hand up and down his back and through his hair, and can feel him relaxing and falling asleep. He fights it though; doesn't want to give in.

"How did he do?" Castle asks.

"Ate some; not as much as I would have wanted him to but," she trails off, not finishing the sentence. At least Austin got something into his stomach.

The final battle sequence of the movie is playing and Liam is jumping around imitating the movie: gun sounds an all. He comes close to the couch, falling backwards from an imaginary explosion.

Castle leans forward and scoops Liam up. He flips the boy upside down, his head in Castle's lap. Liam is laughing, breathless, his arms and legs kicking and waving around.

"Daddy!" Liam giggles as his dad starts to tickle his belly, squeezing at his sides where Castle knows he's most sensitive.

"Don't kick mommy," Castle says as he rights Liam, setting him in his lap, the boy still squeezing out giggles. Kate laughs too, an arm around a finally sleeping Austin; he must be out too because all of that gun blasts and explosions wasn't enough to wake him up.

[] []

"Alright, it's bedtime," Kate says turning off the movie once the credits start to roll. It's too late to give them a bath; they'll have to do it tomorrow. Kate stands, lifting Austin to her chest, cradling him like she did when he was a tiny baby.

They all troop upstairs, the kids crawling up on their hands and knees. They split off once they hit the door to the boys' room. Kate takes them to change into pajamas and brush their teeth.

She lays Austin down in bed, his crib turned into a toddler bed, and pulls the covers over his body. She snuggles his stuffed animal and lovey blanket under his chin.

"Good night baby," she whispers, rubbing his hair out of his face and kissing his forehead. He's still warm, but less than earlier.

She turns around to Liam, who is already covered up and cuddling with his loveys. "Good night Liam," Kate says kissing his forehead. "Stay in bed tonight, don't go waking up daddy, okay?" she asks, giving him a look.

"Okay," he says hugging Kate around her neck. "Night night mommy," Liam says lying down.

Kate turns for the door, leaving the light on so Castle can see when he comes to say good night.

They meet in the hall, switching rooms for their nightly routine.

"Austin is out cold," Kate tells him.

"Good, he needs it," Castle says passing her.

"Danielle James, lay down please," Kate tells her daughter, who it standing up in bed, probably jumping before her mom caught her, as she walks into the girls' room. Castle had turned the fairy lights on, causing the purple painted room to give off a pinky glow.

Kate goes over to Finn's bed first; tucked in a corner, under a window, close to the bathroom door. She kneels down next to the toddler bed, smiling at her daughter.

"I love you baby girl," Kate says hugging Finn, kissing her cheek once the girl starts to pull away.

"I love you mommy," Finn replies, snuggling down into her blanket, curling her tiny arm around her animal and a fabric baby doll she's had since the Christmas before her first birthday.

Kate gives her one more kiss before moving on to the other girls.

Once everyone has been kissed and tucked in, Kate turns off the fairy lights, leaving only the tiny night light plugged into the wall on and leaves the room, closing the door partway behind her.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N- I know, i haven't updated in a while. I'm sorry. School and Writer's Block got the best of me, but i work through the writer's block; the school not so much. Anyway, here's a new chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

**P.S- Anyone good with 'Rational Expressions' and want to help me with my homework?**

* * *

Castle comes downstairs: showered and changed into pajamas. He rounds the corner into the kitchen and sees Kate set up at the bar, the kids' backpacks in a pile next to her.

She's pulled out all of the artwork and papers out of their backpacks and has it in a pile in front of her.

"Shaving cream," she laughs, reading the daily report the kids' teacher sends home with them.

"What?" He asks, coming into the kitchen and leaning against her chair, wrapping an arm around the back. She can smell the freshly showered scent radiating off of him; the cologne from his soap hitting her senses and waking up the butterflies in her belly.

"They painted with shaving cream at school today," she says looking back at him. "When you brought the kids home earlier, Liam rushed over to me all excited, going off about how they painted with 'whipped cream' at school, and I knew it didn't sound right to me," she explains, setting the five reports that basically say the same things into a basket they keep all the kids school stuff in.

"We could open our own gallery with all the stuff they bring home," Castle jokes, holding up one of the many pieces of art work his kids bring home from school every week. He moves to drop it in the recycling bin, when Kate stops him.

"They'll know it's missing," she reminds him. Their kids have a knack for knowing when one of their projects doesn't come home or goes missing; even though almost everything they bring home is nearly identical to their brothers' and sisters'

"Well then what do we do with all of this?" He asks.

He never had this problem with Alexis. When she brought art home from pre-school, he hung it on the back of his office door and when it fell off, Alexis didn't care if it got messed up or thrown away by mistake, she liked the satisfaction of giving it to her dad and showing him what she had made.

"We could get those boxes we use for evidence at the precinct, I'm sure work wouldn't mind if a few went missing, we could keep their work in there?" she offers up the idea; that's what her parents did with all her school work and projects. In fact, she's almost positive her dad still has those boxes at his house, buried deep in the attic.

"Sounds good to me; though we would have to keep them separate, god forbid someone else's project ended up in their box," he smiles.

"Yea," she laughs. "Great, well them next time I'm at work, I'll steal a few," she says, putting the kids folders back in their respective bags and carrying them back to the mud room to sit on the bench, ready for the next day.

She comes back into the kitchen and Castle is gone. She walks through the living room, pausing to turn down the TV; how did they not notice it was _this_ loud? She continues down the hall to his office and finds him at his desk, typing away on his laptop.

"Hey," She says coming inside and sitting on the leather couch across from his desk. "I never got to ask: how did your meeting go today?"

He looks up, grabbing onto his hands to crack to knuckles on his fingers. "It went well; long," he sighs. "Just went over the new book and early plans for the next one."

"Already?" she asks. "You haven't finished this one yet."

"I know; they wanted to start the early planning stages now so we don't put it off until the last minute."

She hums a reply, leaning into the corner of the couch, tucking her feet under herself. "So what are you doing right now?"

"Edits. The publishers gave me notes at today's meeting as well. That's what I was working on when you guys came home earlier; I'm just trying to work a little bit more before I head to bed."

"Well don't let me keep you," she stands. "I'm going to finish cleaning up and probably go lay down," she walks over and kisses the corner of his mouth. She's about to turn and leave when his hand wraps around her waist. He pulls her back, turning her to face him.

He kisses her lips, soft and sweet. She hums a laugh and leans into it, feeling his hand work its way up her back, under the hem of her shirt.

"I love you," he says after pulling away.

"I love you too. Now work; I want to fall asleep with you next to me tonight," she tells him, pushing his chair back under the desk. She sashays out of the room, adding more swing in her step.

"Tease!" Castle calls to her.

"Write, Castle," Her voice come softer as she is two rooms over.

He grumbles to himself, but goes back to work, eventually finishing the edits at eleven thirty. When he gets upstairs, Kate is getting closer and closer to sleep. He heads to the bathroom and brushes his teeth. He flips off both lights when he's done and slides into bed in the almost dark; save for the security light their next door neighbor put up a few months ago.

"Good night," Kate says snuggling into her pillow, the blankets kicked down into her feet.

"Good night, love you," he whispers, rolling away from her, much too hot to cuddle, he closes his eyes, breathing slowly and relaxing.

[] []

"Mommy?" She slowly rises from the black haze of sleep. Someone is poking her and whispering her name. She opens her eyes and blinks until they adjust in the darkness.

Austin is standing next to her side of the bed, his hair falling into his face, his pajama top wrinkled.

"What's wrong baby?" she asks, pushing the hair out of his face, and feeling the head from his head. "Does your head hurt again?"

The kid nods, his face crumpling, tears coming to his eyes.

Kate sits up, her feet hitting the carpet floor of their room. "Come on, let's go take your temperature again," she says leading him around the bed and into their bathroom, sitting him on the vanity. She takes the thermometer out of the medicine cabinet and turns it on before sticking it under Austin's arm.

She rubs his hair as they wait and when it goes off, she nods. His temp has gone up a bit since she took it earlier in the day.

"Let's take some medicine to make your headache go away, ok?" she asks, taking the kids ibuprofen out of the cabinet and shaking out a few of the tablets. She hands them to her son and watches as he chews the pills up. She picks him up and carries him back into her bed. "You can sleep in here tonight, but just tonight, ok?"

"Ok," Austin says, crawling across the mattress and settles in the middle, between his parents. Kate turns on her side, curling an arm around her son. She rubs a hand over his chest and belly, lulling them both back to sleep.

[] []

The sun is the ting he wakes up too. The one thing he hates about summer is that unless you have blackout curtains, which they don't have, sleeping in is nearly impossible. He closes his eyelids tighter, hoping to keep the darkness in for a little while longer.

Evidently it works because the next thing he knows, his alarm is going off and it is really time to get up. He rolls over, hoping to wake up to the still sleeping face of his wife, but what he sees is the long haired, dark eye lashed, slightly freckled face of his two year old son. He vaguely remembers, in a far-off, sleepy memory, Austin coming into their room and waking Kate up and then going into the bathroom and coming back a while later and falling asleep. Bet the kids fever spiked again in the middle of the night.

Castle runs the back of his hand over Austin's cheek; it feels cool to him.

"Kate," he whispers, careful not to wake Austin up.

"Hmm?" she hums, still asleep.

"Gotta get up," he tells her as he slides out of bed, and walks into the bathroom to turn on the shower.

As it heats up, he comes back into the room and Kate is awake now, laying on her arm that's curled under her pillow.

"am I bringing him to school today?" Castle asks her.

"I think we should keep him home today; his fever spiked again and I want to give the antibiotics a chance to work," she replies, taking her cell phone of her bedside table. She types something before holding it to her ear. He assumes she's calling work or the kids school. he goes back to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

[] []

The cool air coming through the open bathroom door is a welcome relief from the heat created by the shower. He's standing over his sink, shaving cream over his face, razor in hand.

"Hey, I'm going to get the kids up. Austin is still asleep," she says to him, poking her head through the doorway.

"'Kay," he says, making faces in the mirror as she shaves off the stubble dotting his cheeks and chin.

Kate closes the door, turning for the hallway. Austin is still asleep in their bed, and she wants to keep it that way as long as possible.

She heads down the hall to the boys room first. Austin had left the door open when he woke up last night, so Kate can see Liam in bed, wriggling as he wakes up, arm still wrapped around his favorite stuffed animal.

She walks into the room and runs a hand through her son's hair. "Liam," she sings. "Come on buddy time to get up." The boy stretches: Arms over his head, elbows at his ears, toes pointed. Finally he opens his blue eyes and Kate smiles down at him.

"Hey baby, did you sleep well?" she asks as his sits up and reached to be held. She scoops him up and bounces him lightly, trying to wake him up.

"Yea," he says, turning his head and looking at his brother's empty bed. "Where Tin-Tin?"

"Austin is sleeping in mommy and daddy's room," Kate tells Liam, setting him on the floor and moving to the boy's closet.

With Liam in the morning it could go either way: He could be good and happy or he could be a real grump and not wanting to do anything. Luckily it seems today is a good day.

Kate pulls out a pair of navy blue cargo shorts and a red shirt with a fire truck on it; she also grabs his green and blue shark swim trunks and an extra shirt to take to school that day as they are having a water play day.

"Come on, let's get dressed," she says to Liam, who plops down on the floor and starts stripping off his pajamas.

Kate changes Liam and moved into the girls' room. Their room is full of light, turning to purple paint on the walls white.

Finn and Miyana are awake; she can hear them talking across the room. Kate swears those tow girls are more like twins than the actual twins in the bunch: Austin and Liam. The girls are almost always attached at the hip and after the twin, are the two that look the most alike.

"Morning girls," Kate says to them as she comes into the room; the two gasp and jump back like they are in trouble, making Kate laugh. She gets hugs from both of them and watches as Mia helps Finn out of bed and to her walker. "Are you two ready to get dressed?" she asks.

The both nod. "We pick?" Miyana asks, moving to her dresser. She pulls out clean underwear for her and her sisters, tossing the latter over to their respective beds. Finn comes out of the bathroom and watches her panties arch over her head and land on her pile of blankets. The girl laughs, her famous smile crossing her face.

"Sure you can," Kate tells her. She tries to let all of her kids pick what they wear, but the boys don't really care most of the time ,so she usually ends up picking, like that morning for example. "Come Danielle, it's time to get up," Kate tells her oldest daughter, who could sleep all day if her parents let her.

Dani huffs out a breath, and opens her eyes. She sits up, a pout coming to her lips. Her blonde curls looking like Medusa in their post sleep disarray.

Kate lets her oldest daughter wake up a little more and goes to check on the other two.

Miyana picked put a pink layered skirt and a yellow tank top with flowers and Princess Belle on it. Fin chooses a simple floral print sundress and is reaching into her dresser for a pair of tights when Kate comes over.

"Nemo I think it's too hot for tights today," Kate tells her, but the girl insists, so she relents and helps get the white tights out of the drawer that is too high for her daughter to see over.

Mia can get dressed on her own, but Kate has to help Finn put her tights on. Once the girls have clothes on; Danielle too with blue shorts and a green shirt with different dinosaurs on it, Kate brushes their hair out and pulls it up into braids for Finn, a high pony tail for Mia and she just leaves Danielle's hair down as the girl whines over her hair the entire time Kate is brushing it. She grabs their swimsuits and extra underwear before leading them out of the room to meet Liam at his and they all head downstairs for breakfast together.

[] []

"Bye mommy!" Four voices shout at her as they all try and get a hug and kiss before leaving for school. Kate ignores all the pushing and shoving her kids are doing and gives each one a goodbye hug and kiss.

"Bye guys, have a good day at school. I love you," She says as each one leaves the living room and heads for the garage door where their dad told them to wait.

"I'll be back in a few," Castle says leaning over the back of the couch and kisses her on the lips.

"Bye," she says kissing him once more before he walks away. "Don't forget their pool bag!" she calls to him

"I won't!" he replies. Kate shakes her head and listens as Castle gets all five kids and their school stuff out of the house and into the car. She hears the garage door open and the car start.

Everything is silent for a good three minutes before the garage door opens again and she can hear her husband's footfalls on the stairs and then the tile floor of the mud room.

"You forgot the bag, didn't you?" she calls to him. He doesn't reply, but she knows it's a yes.

She laughs and stands to go check on a still sleeping Austin.


End file.
